Converting a terminus station into a through one

[matchmaker]

It was suggested a few years ago that Largs services should be extended to Wemyss Bay. Didn't work when they tried it!

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

There is regular mention in the press about a reconnection to Wycombe.

Mentioning Wycombe brings to mind that High Wycombe railway station itself was once the original terminal station for the Great Western Railway branch line from Maidenhead.

 

[daikilo]

Tan-y-Bulch on the Ffestiniog when the extension was opened.
Liverpool Central LL when it switched from a terminus on the Wirral Railway to a through on the cross-city Southport-Huyton.

 

[RPM]

Tan-y-Bulch on the Ffestiniog when the extension was opened.

That was only a temporary terminus though. You could say the same about Bostol Lodge Halt, Minffordd, Penrhyn, Dduallt and Tanygrisiau.
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Mentioning Wycombe brings to mind that High Wycombe railway station itself was once the original terminal station for the Great Western Railway branch line from Maidenhead.

I refer the honourable gentleman to the answer I gave some days ago

http://www.railforums.co.uk/showpost.php?p=1098756&postcount=27

 

[Polarbear]

Green Lane on the Merseyrail network was the original terminus of the Mersey Railways line from Liverpool Central LL. The extension to Rock Ferry was built later

Of course, Merseyside boasts two examples of former through stations being converted to double ended termini (Ormskirk & Kirkby).

 

[steamybrian]

Can I add New Romney (RHDR) station.
It was originally built as a two platform terminus of the line from Hythe.
When the line to Dungeness was built the two original terminal platforms were kept but two new through platforms were built adjacent.

 

[Eagle]

No-one's mentioned Portsmouth and Southsea. That one's obvious, just to look at it :P

(Opened in 1847, Harbour extension was 1876.)

 

[marks87]

Was Dundee (Tay Bridge) a terminus at one point?

Tay Bridge was used by NBR, with the line to Arbroath (D&AJR) heading out from Dundee East. The Dock Street tunnel was built to join the line to Arbroath to the line to Perth (CR) at Dundee West.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

I refer the honourable gentleman to the answer I gave some days ago

http://www.railforums.co.uk/showpost.php?p=1098756&postcount=27

I had only come across this particular thread by accident and the railway historian inside me could not wait to read ALL the previous postings, before I made mine.

 

[Tim B]

Does anyone remember the interim service called Heathrow FastTrain which commenced in January 1998 and ran to a temporary station called Heathrow Junction, where a coach took passengers the rest of the way to the Airport Terminals ?

The full service opened in June 1998 whereupon this Heathrow Junction station ceased to be a terminus. I used this service once only but can't now remember much about it, or how much it cost.

 

[Eagle]

Does anyone remember the interim service called Heathrow FastTrain which commenced in January 1998 and ran to a temporary station called Heathrow Junction, where a coach took passengers the rest of the way to the Airport Terminals ?

That was only opened because Airport Tunnel collapsed, I think.

 

[John55]

Green Lane on the Merseyrail network was the original terminus of the Mersey Railways line from Liverpool Central LL. The extension to Rock Ferry was built later

Of course, Merseyside boasts two examples of former through stations being converted to double ended termini (Ormskirk & Kirkby).

Green Lane was always a station with through tracks although trains didn't originally run beyond Green Lane until the Birkenhead Joint Railway built the additional lines beyond the top of the ramp south of Green Lane to Rock Ferry.

The original rolling stock for the railway was delivered this way as it was the only connection to the rest of the railway network. The connection at Birkenhead Park was built later.

James St was originally a terminus as well but the tracks went beyond to sidings.

 

[Tim B]

Don't think so as, per Wiki, the tunnel collapse happened 21 October 1994, way before the interim service commenced.

 

[OliverS]

Does anyone remember the interim service called Heathrow FastTrain which commenced in January 1998 and ran to a temporary station called Heathrow Junction, where a coach took passengers the rest of the way to the Airport Terminals ?

The full service opened in June 1998 whereupon this Heathrow Junction station ceased to be a terminus. I used this service once only but can't now remember much about it, or how much it cost.

Faint memory of it being about half the price of the Express ticket when the full service started. I used it once (coming from Heathrow) and remember thinking that it wasn't the cost that I had expected.

But it wasn't converted, as I recall it was a single platform as a siding adjacent to the tunnel portals. Therefore it was simply removed.

 

[stut]

Not the UK, but I was recently impressed by Malmö C, which has had a massive project, together with the Öresundsbron, to convert it into a through station. However, this was achieved by running tunnels under the existing terminus station, and under a huge section of the city, from Hyllie through Triangeln. The result is the ability to run through services from Copenhagen to much of Scania and onwards to Gothenburg and Stockholm.

(The station does still see a number of terminating local, regional, inter-city and sleeper services, mind, and the refurbishment is rather excellent).

On its own, it's maybe not that remarkable, but taken in conjunction with the Citytunneln and the Öresundsbron, it's a spectacular feat of civil engineering, with huge, positive impacts on southern Scandinavia.

 

[fairysdad]

I'm surprised no ones mentioned Bristol Templemeads, it was the original Great western terminus from London, before it was converted into a through station.

Post 7

The only other one I know about for certain is Watchet, now on the West Somerset. And on that note, I'd possibly think that there are a lot of stations that were terminuses but are now through because of extensions made to lines during the late 19th / early 20th Century.

 

[caliwag]

Leeds has two bay platforms in the middle (roughly) The intention is to demolish the buffet and toilets and join the bays for through running. I think it's part of the plan to wire Neville hill to Holgate, York in order that Northern can run through to Micklefield...apparently!

 

[ntg]

Speaking of this, whatever happened to the plan to connect the two Bradford termini with a viaduct?

 

[caliwag]

Still bumbling around I understand...probably awaiting boyant financial Times. It does seem to have the backing of local business. I'll make further enquiries from my 'contact'.

 

[Bill EWS]

Dundee had two terminal stations just as Aberdeen had. In Dundee it was East and West stations. Tay Bridge station became the through station and the West station was eventually closed, many years later. In fact both East and West stations lasted until the 1960's.

Aberdeen had the GNSR terminal at Waterloo Docks (Now the Harbour branch from Kittybrewster). A new line was built from Kittybrewster down through the Denburn and a new 'Joint' station built by the site of the North British Railway station, where it remains today.

 

[caliwag]

I used West as a kid and was always impressed by the grand urban square which embraced the entrance...travelling from Perth, Dundee was 'the big City', well it was to a 10 year old. The train shed was fronted with a sort of Scottish baronial office building, or was it a hotel even?

East had an elegant train shed as well...suppose they were a 10 minute walk apart.

Intriguingly there was a dock railway which meandered past the West entrance from the West yards and sheds to the docks. The system was populated with Y9s with big caged spark arresters (there were loads of importers' timber yards on he dock front.)
That line was still there in the mid 60s.

All well documented in 'Tayside's Railways...Dundee and Perth' by Smith and Anderson...Irwell Press.

 

[DXMachina]

If you want to go back far enough - 'Hemel Hempstead & Boxmoor', or whatever it was called in the 1820s...

Obviously the structure presently on that site is completely unrelated to the original.

 

[Tomonthetrain]

Would Birmingham Moor Street count? Ie wasnt it a Terminus, then through, then terminus, then through, then mixed terminus and through lines?

 

[Eagle]

Would Birmingham Moor Street count? Ie wasnt it a Terminus, then through, then terminus, then through, then mixed terminus and through lines?

Seems legit. The station never moved (unlike, say, Bathgate).

 

[Gwenllian2001]

Penarth was made into a through station many years ago but reverted to being a terminus in 1968.

 

[AndyLandy]

What's the advantage of terminus stations? I mean, it makes sense at the end of a line when there's nowhere else to go, but so many terminals seem like an odd decision to me. Am I missing something?

 

[caliwag]

Apropo Leeds, it seems that's been put on the back burner pending arrival of decanted units from the South. Keep an eye on Rail magazine for news I guess. Bradford is very pear-shaped as the local authority have granted permission for shops (as if we need more of them!) On the alignment. Kinda short-sighted.
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Re AndyLandy comment. Terminals are just an accident of history. Look at Largs and Wemyss Bay...seems the landowner in between just refused to allow a lind. He must of had some clout as didn't seem to stop lines in most other areas. Of course when most projects were mooted in earlr Victorian times, they only were built so far until the money ran out. Helston was intended to go to the Lizard, Meanwhile in North London St Pancras came late and was generated more by coal traffic. But they had the advantage of learning from the GN experience re the canal, so went over it giving them scoipe for the prestigeous hotel at the front. In Hull the late-coming Hull and Barnsley wanted to take their line to Kinston square which would have given a real prestige spot a stones through from the banking and businees heart of the City...not be of course and they ended up in Canon Street...nowhere really. So land release and related Acts of Parliament is probably your answer.

 

[Eagle]

Am I missing something?

Do you mean ones like Stratford-upon-Avon? Usually it's because they used to be through stations but the line beyond them was closed. The line through Stratford used to continue to Honeybourne on the Cotswold line (in fact the other end of it is still open, for access to Long Marston storage depot).

 

[krus_aragon]

I think Aberystwyth is a termni station, if I remember correctly

Aberystwyth has always been a terminus station: The Aberystwyth and Welsh Coast, Manchester and Milford, and Vale of Rheidiol all entered the station from the east.
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Penarth was made into a through station many years ago but reverted to being a terminus in 1968.

I clean forgot that one. Became a through station in 1887, with the opening of the Cardiff, Penarth and Barry Junction Railway. (Originally opened in 1878)

 

[RobShipway]

Was the current Bournemouth station always a through Station? I know that there used to be a seperate Bournemouth West terminating station but this got pulled down the year of my birth (i.e. in 1969), but something rings bells about Bournemouth Central being a terminating station.